Larry Bird stories

[Schmoove]

From "Showtime" by Jeff Pearlman

To Cooper, Larry Bird was still merely larry bird (lowercase intended)— an overrated Great White Hype who captured a nation’s imagination more for his pigmentation than his playing ability. Cooper had seen it all before. Doug Collins. Mike Dunleavy. Tom McMillen. Mike O’Koren. White guys came, white guys went. Larry Bird? Who the hell was scared of Lar— “I’m getting ready to wear your fukking ass out.” The words were uttered softly. Almost in a whisper. Had the white boy just spoken in such a manner to Michael Cooper? Had he really said such a thing? Barely two minutes had passed in the opening quarter and Bird was already slinging yang.

 

[Originalman]

was filthy. lister dapped him too

EDIT: I think he got Lister twice actually, unsure if same game.

Alton sure did dap him up.

 

[Houston911]

Larry legend

 

[Listen]

Eddie A Johnson @Jumpshot8
I once talked smack to Larry Bird and he proceeded to give me 35 and he described to me every move he would make beforehand! @NBA

 

[Listen]

There are no more games to play for Chris Mullin, no executive decisions to make, nothing to worry about but his Hall of Fame speech. Mullin will get his much-deserved induction in Springfield, Mass., next weekend, and a group of us found him in an expansive, reflective mood Friday as he conducted an interview session in Danville. He told a Larry Bird story that had us amazed - once the laughter subsided.

Even as Mullin approached his NBA prime in the late 1980s, he was the ultimate gym rat, looking for an elite summer pickup game wherever he could find it. He'd play in Magic Johnson's annual All-Star Game in Los Angeles, as well as Bird's combination golf-basketball event in Indiana (no golf for Mullin; just hoops). He showed up one year and got so ridiculously hot from three-point range, Bird asked him how hard he'd been training.

"I haven't," Mullin told him. "It's been a while."

Bird didn't believe that, but he remembered Mullin as a kindred spirit, a player whose outside shot was almost supernaturally perfect.

By the summer of 1992, they were teammates on the storied U.S. basketball squad known as the Dream Team, alongside Magic, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone and the rest. One day, in a quiet and near-empty Barcelona gym, Bird and Mullin got into a shooting contest: man on man, match the other guy's shot or you owe him a hundred bucks. Stays even if both guys make it.

"It was just basic shots - jumpers, bank shots, not like the McDonald's commercial (laughter)," Mullin said. "I got off nice. After a while I had him by ... quite a bit."

Like, how much - a grand?

"More than that. I think I was up like 20 shots. So we're talkin' back and forth (Bird was a legendary trash talker), and he starts coming back. I'm thinking, we could go another 30 minutes. Somebody's gonna win big here.

"Finally, he gets it back to zero," Mullin said, "and he goes, 'I'm out.' Just cut off the game right there."

What, he didn't want to take you down?

"Nope. Says to me, 'I ain't never lost, and I ain't ... now.' "

Years later, when Mullin joined the Pacers, for whom Bird was an executive, he tried repeatedly to get a rematch. No dice, Bird said. That says a lot about pride, about reputation, and about two of the greatest pure shooters who ever lived.

 

[s3ven_LvLs]

Yeah you need to do one on kemp. The greatest in game dunk I ever saw was when he dunked on Alton Liston and pointed at him in I believe the 1991 nba playoffs.

 

[Listen]

Larry tells me one time, 'I'm going to wear you out on this play, Mike.' He comes off a cross pick by Ainge and I'm trailing him like I'm supposed to, around Robert Parish. Bird takes one dribble. Parish rolls to the hoop, Bird makes a great pass, and Parish dunks. And all Bird does is laugh at me: 'Ha, ha ha!' That kills you when they do that kind of. . . . " - Michael Cooper.

 

[s3ven_LvLs]

But this is a larry bird thread so.............

 

[SteelCitySoldier]

yeah his teams never won a thing or played great team ball

This nikka got a gif of Freeway son reacting to that pic of Jay putting his pop on time out

 

[same damn lo sweater]

balling in the playoffs w/ a broken cheekbone

 

[ChiefKeef]

Not on some fufu cac shyt but I did see this first on reddit

 

[Mr. Jack Napier]

Some of the game winners that were talked about are in this video. (The gw against McDaniels & the gw vs Phx)

 

[QuarterCenturyLegend]

I don't really care for Bill Simmons but this was an amazing interview with Larry Legend in my opinion. Some of it is still relevant to what's happening in the NBA today. Just really cool

 

[Majestic Pape]

you mustve missed my post saying lebron would need his best defensive season ever to match bird's defensive win shares over the same amount of games played...which also takes into account bird's last years with a bad back

lebron more athletic etc but the narrative of bird being a bad defender is pretty much false

and didnt pippen often take jordans guy?

Oh, you're one of those guys who haven't actually SEEN any of the games, huh?

 

[I_Got_Da_Burna]

the good ol days when NBA superstars hated each other...